Advice On Selling/Trading In Mid-2011 11" MBA

[Bigredhunk]

Hello everyone. I've been lurking for a while. I figured it's time to finally post and ask for some advice.

I’m preparing to sell my mid-2011 11” MBA (MC969LL/A).

Intel core i5 Processor 1.6GHz
4GB RAM
128GB SSD
1379 Cycle Count On Battery (“Replace Soon” Condition)
Yosemite 10.10.2

I foolishly never had a case on this one (we put cases on our other two immediately). There is one small scratch (about 1/5” long) on the bottom. Otherwise it looks and works great. It comes with the original packaging, two 45W MagSafe power adapters, and a case logic travel sleeve. I’d take good photos and describe everything accurately.

I’ve searched the “sold” listings on Ebay. It looks like most of those in Good/Very Good condition sell for between $325 and $475. Some sell for $600 or $700. A select few sell for more than that, sometimes significantly more. But it looks like the usual selling price there would be somewhere in that low-mid $300’s -to- mid-high $400’s region.

On Amazon they’re listed for quite a bit higher. Even those with problems (missing pixels and such) are listed for a good amount. The cheapest current listing is for one in Acceptable condition, and it’s $480. The next closest listing (also in Acceptable condition) is $588. I don’t know if listing them higher on Amazon makes the seller more $$ or not, as I’m not following individual listings to see if they sell. Maybe they sit there month after month. I know one in similar condition to mine was listed for $700-something for a while. It was created before Christmas, and hadn’t sold until at least late January. It’s gone now. Not sure if it sold or if it was removed.

Amazon will offer $308 on a trade-in for my condition. It would be $385 if it was in like new condition. I’m sure I’d make more $$ selling it myself on Ebay or Amazon. Unfortunately I’ve never sold anything online (or on CL for that matter) and am intimidated by the process. I’m fearful of scammers, bad buyers, returns. With Amazon trade-in you wouldn’t get as much, but it’s a painless process (no worrying about someone trying to rip you off or even just return it). I’d rather this didn’t drag on for 6 weeks or get returned once sold (“I expected the battery to work better” or something).

So I’m wondering what people with selling/trade-in experience have to say. Is it foolish to take less on Amazon trade-in? Have your sales on Ebay/Amazon always gone smoothly? Do they sell quickly? I’ve read the horror stories about fake bids, people returning a box of rocks, etc… Now that Ebay has a 4-month return policy, it makes me even more reticent.

What do you prefer:

Selling on Ebay via Buy It Now?
Selling on Ebay via auction?
Selling on Amazon yourself?
Selling on Amazon via FBA?
Trading in on Amazon?

We have a 2013 13” 128 GB MBA and a 2014 11” 128 GB MBA. This older model works great, but it’s just sitting here taking up space.

I'm grateful for any help/advice you may have and thank you for reading this.

 

[motrek]

... Unfortunately I’ve never sold anything online (or on CL for that matter) and am intimidated by the process. I’m fearful of scammers, bad buyers, returns. With Amazon trade-in you wouldn’t get as much, but it’s a painless process (no worrying about someone trying to rip you off or even just return it). I’d rather this didn’t drag on for 6 weeks or get returned once sold (“I expected the battery to work better” or something). ...

This is what makes Craigslist attractive, it's a face-to-face deal instead of having to ship something valuable somewhere and hoping it works out.

With Craigslist, you can arrange to meet in a public place and have your friends with you in case you're afraid a stranger is going to rip you off.

Craigslist has its share of scammers but these are easy to spot. Don't reply to anybody who wants you to ship the laptop anywhere, and don't even reply to any emails that don't mention your laptop specifically, they are just fishing for your email address.

 

[Bigredhunk]

This is what makes Craigslist attractive, it's a face-to-face deal instead of having to ship something valuable somewhere and hoping it works out.

With Craigslist, you can arrange to meet in a public place and have your friends with you in case you're afraid a stranger is going to rip you off.

Craigslist has its share of scammers but these are easy to spot. Don't reply to anybody who wants you to ship the laptop anywhere, and don't even reply to any emails that don't mention your laptop specifically, they are just fishing for your email address.

Have you sold this way before? Ever had any problems? I'm paranoid that I'd get counterfeit $$ or something. I know there are ways to check it (some kind of pen?).

I've seen people in store parking lots exchanging things, and have always assumed it was a CL sale.

 

[motrek]

Have you sold this way before? Ever had any problems? I'm paranoid that I'd get counterfeit $$ or something. I know there are ways to check it (some kind of pen?).

I've seen people in store parking lots exchanging things, and have always assumed it was a CL sale.

I've bought and sold a lot of things via CL. No real problems so far. I was pretty careful the first few times to always meet the other person in a very public place, etc. You realize fairly quickly that CL is almost all a bunch of average people trying to buy/sell stuff and become comfortable with it. I've done enough sales that based on the interactions I have with people, I'm fine with them coming over to my house to look at things or vice versa. I suppose I could be more careful in this regard but again, so far no problems.

 

[Bigredhunk]

Thanks for the replies motrek.

At what price would you list it? From what I've read about CL, people will try to respond with ridiculously low offers. If you add that "X" is the lowest price for which you'll sell it, you'll get more serious offers/not as many waste of time offers. I have no idea what to charge for it.

 

[motrek]

Thanks for the replies motrek.

At what price would you list it? From what I've read about CL, people will try to respond with ridiculously low offers. If you add that "X" is the lowest price for which you'll sell it, you'll get more serious offers/not as many waste of time offers. I have no idea what to charge for it.

You can search CL and eBay (for finished auctions) to get an idea of what you should list it for.

If you have some time and patience, it's best to list on the higher side of fair. If nobody shows serious interest after a couple weeks you can re-list for a lower price. It's CL, so you can list as many times as you need to (for free).

You will probably get a lot of people lowballing you, you're right. You don't even really need to reply to those emails. Also don't reply to the ones that are overly general, e.g., "Is your item still for sale?" since those are just people fishing for your email address.

 

[KadMac]

I personally like to go the ebay route when I sell. I just bought this same laptop about a month ago and I paid $460 for it which was a great deal at the time.

The average that I have seen with this model is $500 to $530. I think you could definitely sell it for that much. I am really surprised to hear about them being sold at around $375. If it was sold at that price, I am sure those listings must have been because of water damage or screen problems. If yours is in good shape with 4GB RAM, I would definitely say stay around the $500 mark.

Just my two cents.

 

[sostoobad]

I have sold about 6 macs all on ebay all no reserve, they do the money.

All have been painless, and Macs are easy to ship.

CL is not for me, probably will be ok, but you never know.